Ideation culture

Coming up with a great idea is often seen as the most important step in design and innovation. But more than generating ideas, designers need the ability to communicate their ideas to project teams and other stakeholders, including management, developers, and users. Moreover, in order to realise their ideas, designers need to create an ideation culture where stakeholders engage in activities which support and promote innovation. For example, Thesis Couture, a US footwear design firm, brought together a team of experts, including a rocket scientist, an orthopedic surgeon, and a fashion technologist, to redesign the stiletto shoe replacing the traditional metal rod in the heel with one made of mouldable plastic. Such a cross-domain ideation culture highlights designers' relationship to industry that goes beyond issues of aesthetics, to give them a role in the application of new materials and technology.

Mindful ideation

The term mindfulness has many usages. Derived from Buddhist meditational practices, mindfulness is, for example, applied in clinical psychology as a "mode of being" that focuses on what is being sensed at each moment, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. In the context of design, applying mindfulness to ideation may suggest sustained attention to ideas as they unfold, moment by moment, with openness and without prejudice. Ideation, then, as a purposeful and mindful process, is concentrating on the creative task in hand rather than letting the mind wander constantly, thus in contrast to "brainstorming", which generates lots of random and directionless ideas.

Practising ideation

While talent matters in creative pursuits, the ability and skill to generate and communicate ideas can be improved through practice, as experienced in the ideation workshop (see ditto). This is because the human brain is highly plastic and very adaptable responding to practice. Indeed, rather than arguing that ideation depends on being naturally gifted, or expecting instant gratification from ideation, the belief that ideation improves with practice motivate us to make more effort and persist longer.

The idea of sketching

The idea of sketching is not so much related to what, in fact, constitutes a sketch (mediums), but rather visual thinking (process). In this sense, the sketch is not so much for design (purpose) as of design (direction).

Pollyanna ideas

Pollyanna is the children's book character whose name has become a popular term for someone with an optimistic outlook. But should ideators adopt the Pollyanna philosophy of life, which centers on what she calls "The Glad Game," or finding something to be glad about in every situation? But while ideation implies positive thinking, and therefore optimism of what can be, the Pollyanna view, or over-optimism might cloud rather than open creative minds resulting in ideas that are more fanciful than realistic.Or, extreme optimism might overestimate ideators ability to control ideation outcomes distracting ideators from positive to wishful thinking. Ideation, then, if turned into a kind of Pollyanna game, might result in unrealistic optimism, or ideas expectation, only to be unravelled when ideas are communicated to audiences who apply critical as well as positive thinking.

Psychology of ideation

Psychology, or the study of the mind and behaviour, can be applied to a variety of issues that impact well-being and everyday life. This suggests that psychology can be applied to design thinking and making, And because design is both an individual and a social activity, so the disciplines of Cognitive Psychology, or the study of thought processes, including perception and problem-solving, and Social Psychology, or the study of social interaction, including group behaviour and social perception, may be helpful in understanding and explaining how designers think, act, and feel when engaged in design activities, from first thoughts to final outcomes.

Ideation and augmented reality

In the real world, which is physically experienced rather than mediated through digital processes, design ideas are typically generated and communicated through talking, writing, freehand drawing and sketch modelling. In contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a computer-simulated one giving rise to an immersive experience with few or no constraints of the real world, such as societal norms, history or culture. Another immersive experience is augmented reality where artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world to the extent that virtual reality is modified to blend with real life. With augmented reality, unlike virtual reality where ideas may appear as conceived by unrestrained imagination, users continue to be in touch with the real world while interacting with virtual objects around them. Augmented reality, then, in combining real and virtual elements, may suggest a hybrid ideation process where ideas appear more realistic than fanciful.